This relates back perhaps to an earlier posting, but there’s a thread of story I’m following beneath the story of Ivan (Shukhov) and the routine of his day in this prison camp, regardless of the backstory information we get.
People are basically alike in their needs and their response to fulfilling those needs. People adapt. They seek a certain level of comfort–not creature comfort, but rather comfort that in some way comes through compromise and attitude to allow them to survive, if survival is all they can hope for.
Shukhov stood there just as long as was decent for a man who had brought a bowl of kasha. After all, Tsezar might offer him a smoke. But Tsezar had quite forgotten his presence.
So Shukhov turned on his heel and went quickly out. The cold is bearable, he decided. The block-laying wouldn’t go too badly. (p. 84)
After finagling a few extra bowls of oatmeal, Shukhov takes one for himself and has just delivered one to the squad leader, a prisoner of higher ranking. There is a pecking order established, and the squad leader was sitting in an office talking art and literature with another man. Shukhov notices immediately how warm the rooms are, how red the stove burns.
One reaction to the better position of others is often resentment and envy. Another, like Shukhov’s, is to convince yourself that you have it pretty good yourself. There are those below you who may suffer more; the captain, new to the camp and not knowing yet how to survive; the men who were not allowed near the stove to warm themselves until those of higher "ranking" or experience were ready to leave.
Though compassion for their lesser fortunate has driven some to share, there is also a need to feel superior. Why are we only secure, do we only feel magnanimous, when we are feeling at least partway up the ladder and see others standing on the ground.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology